When working overhead, in order to protect anyone below, a safety apparatus such as a safety net may be suspended below the working area to arrest items that may fall. Overhead fittings can be safeguarded in a similar way by a fall arrest net, as described in US20140105522A1.
Another approach, particularly for securing hand-held items that might be dropped, such as hand tools, portable communication devices, aerosol cans, and the like, is to provide a tether line fixed at one end directly to the tool and at the other end to a special-purpose tool belt, such as a builder's apron. The drawbacks with this approach includes the difficulty of connecting the tether line to the article in a way that is sufficiently secure and does not unduly restrict proper use of the article. The tether lines themselves are a nuisance to the user as, due to their lengths, they tend to get caught up on different objects. Furthermore, while a tool belt has pockets for holding hand-held articles when not in use, it is a large item to wear if only a single hand-held article is used. It is an objective of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantages or, more generally, to provide an improved safety tether for providing drop protection for hand-held articles.